A Southern Writer Who Knows What Goes Bump in the Night

Movie

Hey there friends and fans! A handful of months ago I wrote a review of the YA novel Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, linked below. I absolutely loved the book, as I said, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the chance to check out the film version, Love, Simon. I finally got my chance over the holiday weekend, and I feel inspired to write this short follow-up post for anyone interested in watching it.

Love, Simon is a great cinematic piece of art. The story, of course, is the same. Simon, our beloved protagonist, is coming to terms with being homosexual in a climate that is still quite unforgiving, and trying to, frankly, learn how to “be” gay. The whole thing really starts with a post on a local social media page, where one of Simon’s classmates professes to being gay – anonymously, of course. Simon, also anonymously, responds with his own confession, leading him down a journey of self-discovery that we’re brought along for.

Simon’s tale is not one for the faint of heart, and certainly not one for the closed-minded. One of Simon’s classmates realizes his secret and uses it for his own benefit. This sends Simon reeling as he tries to cope with not only the demands of his classmate but his own attempts at connecting with the boy he now feels he’s falling in love with.

One of the things that I was really impressed with was the way the movie stayed in sync with the novel for the most part. I really feel Simon’s story, although slightly altered for the screen, was still true to its book counterpart. I think the actors were well selected, Nick Robinson doing a phenomenal job as the main character.

One of my personal favorite parts of the film was the attempt to show that Martin, the unfortunate antagonist, was not your typical high school bully. Rather than being the biker, the jock, or the general rough and tough kid in the halls, Martin was actually kind of the stereotypical nerdy loser character. Mascot on the football team, avid lover of graphic tees and magic, Martin was the kind of guy most people love to hate. His affinity for blackmail didn’t make it hard to dislike him, either.

Simon’s struggle with finding a way to tell his friends and family his secret was well described and heartfelt. In his attempt to be himself and find the best way to be himself he posits the question why straight is the norm. Why it’s only homosexuals who have to “come out” to their loved ones. Which is a strong question in and of itself. Rather than assuming everyone is attracted to the opposite sex, maybe it isn’t that difficult for us to stop assuming and allow our loved ones to tell us their preference in their own time. However, that would require the world being a much less judgmental place.

Of course, Simon’s secret does get leaked and he has to come to terms with everyone learning he is gay in a way he had no control over. Which, for me, was one of the most heartbreaking parts of the film, and led to one of the best lines and best deliveries in the film. Martin apologizes after seeing what damage he caused, and Simon, for the first time, truly lets go.

He tells Martin that no apology is good enough. He took something that was Simon’s, ruined his chance to let people know of his sexual preference in his way. In essence, this scene made the tone of the film for me. Apart from everything else that happened, this scene really showed the pain and anxiety that can be brought on by coming out – and even more so the pain that can come from not being able to make the decision yourself. Robinson’s performance here truly brought Simon’s struggle home for me.

Needless to say, this is a YA work, so there was a definite form of happy ending, which I won’t spoil, although that wait for the mystery poster was something that really brought the anxiety game to a new level.

Overall, I thought the film adaptation of Simon’s story was a great movie. It didn’t stick with what I felt were some of the more interesting or important areas of the novel – the focus on music, for instance (although there was a very prominent Elliot Smith poster), but it was a great movie. If you are at all interested in this movie, I urge you to give it a watch. If you liked the book, again – watch the movie. If you haven’t experienced either, I recommend both. I personally liked the book a little better, but that’s my natural go to.

What about you? Have you watched the movie or read the book? Which did you prefer, and why? What was your favorite part of either? Let me know in the comments. Also, check out the link below to see my review of the book if you haven’t already.

As always, thanks for reading and subscribing. There’ll be a new podcast soon, and plenty of new words written before year’s end. Stick around for the journey to stay updated on everything! Thanks again, and Happy Holidays!

Hey there friends and fans! I hope August has treated you all fairly so far. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster month already for me, but hopefully things will climb to the top and stay there! As you all know, I am a HUGE Stephen King fan, so the fact that two King movies are hitting theaters in the next month is just making me absolutely giddy.

In light of that, I have decided that August’s book is going to be the absolute classic “IT”. This has been one of my favorite books since I first started reading it in third grade – which I have come to accept is very nearly 20 years ago, no matter how much it sucks to admit it. I love the weight within the book and the struggle these individuals go through, so I am immensely excited to do this book for my review. Hopefully this will give everyone a refresher course on the novel before the Sept. 8 release date of the first part of the movie, too!

Now, I’m aware this is a BEAST of a book, coming in at over 1,000 pages, so don’t hate me for doing this. It’s such a good book, and a very fast read, and it is more than worth taking the time to check it out, either the first time or as a refresher course. I hope you all enjoy the novel as much as I do, and I absolutely can’t wait to have the discussion!!

On other notes, I have been really enjoying my return to Wattpad. In not quite two weeks you guys have helped me get so many reads that I’ve placed as high as #626 in Wattpad’s horror category. Of the amount of authors on the site, that’s pretty cool! I appreciate all of the reads and all of the votes and I hope you’ll all check out both “The Dollhouse,” my new horror story or “Rain,” my detective-style noir piece. If you’re interested, you can find my Wattpad profile here; https://www.wattpad.com/user/DameanMathews.

There you go, folks! Look for the review to go up on or around the 31st, so there’s plenty of time to read! Let’s dive into “IT,” read some Wattpad and remember – we all float!

I don’t think I’ve ever actually reviewed a movie on this site before, but if there is a movie that deserves it, it is definitely “Logan.” I’m going to warn you all now; if you haven’t seen this movie, you may want to hold off on reading, because there will definitely be spoilers ahead.

For those of you that may not know it, Wolverine is my absolute favorite comic book character of all time. There are so many awesome things about this animalistic little brute that blow my mind. With that in mind, there are almost as many representations of the character as there are comic strains with him in it. Of course, the various representations within those strains adds an infinite amount as well, but that would almost definitely send us down a rabbit hole, and who knows where we’d land. My favorite of the many representations of Wolverine is definitely Hugh Jackman, followed at a close second by the cartoon version voiced by Cathal J. Dodd in the 1990’s hit X-Men: The Animated Series. This was the absolute best Saturday morning cartoon by far (of course, it was followed closely by Spiderman, but again, rabbit hole).

I’ve followed Jackman’s take on the character since he first donned the spiked hair and adamantium claws in 2000 and I’ve loved the way he does it. The pain and absolute rage he can portray capture Wolverine like I don’t think anyone else could. “Logan” brought both of those things to a whole new level. In this movie we find James Howlett making money driving the rich and privileged around in a limo in Las Vegas. He’s a little older, a lot grizzlier, and a whole lot worse for the wear. The man who once popped his claws with barely a second’s thought now limps around, his grey hair blowing in the wind.

When we first encounter him he’s forced to “come out of retirement” to save what’s his as some punks try to strip his car. With a shotgun blast to the chest that doesn’t want to heal and claws that will no longer fully extend, the old man struggles for a good few minutes to take out the threat. He eventually gets pissed off enough to get the job done, taking arms and legs off of the thieves as they pump him full of bullets. We see him full of wounds, covered in scars, and having to force the bullets out, where they once would have just pushed their way out a matter of seconds. And we have no idea what’s going on.

The story continues as Logan goes to Mexico and we get little bits and pieces of the story along the way, from the rogue Caliban who is helping Wolverine care for an ailing Xavier, to the Reavers who are hot on the trail of some secret experiment, Logan is thrown back into the fight that he has tried so hard to escape. This movie gives real insight into the pain and torture Logan and Xavier feel. The world they live in – in 2029 – I might add, is now devoid of mutants. No new mutants are being born, and the old ones have disappeared or been killed. We are given to understand that the three mutants we encounter are all that remains, but there isn’t much of an explanation for why that is until much later in the film.

The story of the most brutal mutant anti-hero’s final hour is also the darkest and most brutal story in the franchise to date. The raw emotion and turmoil Mangold hands us here is just phenomenal. Wolverine is now nearly defunct, literally having to pull his claws out by hand at one point, his body not healing itself much at all. This isn’t explicitly said to be fact, but at one point Logan suggests that it is the adamantium – the very thing that makes him unbreakable – that is breaking him down. That alone gives you a huge insight into the mood of this movie.

As the strange little girl who we soon realize is X-23 comes into the mix, the story grows more and more intense, with Wolverine having to uproot his plans to sail to the middle of the ocean with Xavier in order to take the little girl to what she is sure is a haven. Of course, the bad guys don’t want that. Trouble follows the trio (Wolverine, Xavier, and Laura) through half the country as they attempt to flee to safety. More is slowly revealed about the state of the world, even giving a mention of the possibility that Xavier’s fits of psychic attack due to his degenerating brain may be why the X-Men are no longer there to save the day.

For me, despite the fact that this is the last of Jackman’s Wolverine films, it is absolutely his best. He is such a dynamic actor that he can go from playing a savage, angry brute one second, to a pained and dying mutant the next in the blink of an eye. The biggest surprise for me in this movie was that, after all of the battles Wolverine has been through, he is finally pitted against a more brutal and angry version of himself in two scenes. X24 (something largely made up for the movie, but loosely based on some androids and genetic experiments from the comics) is a clone of Wolverine that exhibits all of the rage and none of the conscience of the weapon-turned-savior. I loved seeing Jackman’s older, more fragile Wolverine duke it out with what may be the best enemy possible – the beast that he used to be.

With a strong Western theme, a lot of cursing, (almost) enough violence, and a story that seriously broke my heart, I give Logan five and a half out of six claws way up in the air. For me, the only thing that could have made this movie better would have been the reveal that Jackman would remain in the roll and the character would live on. Of course, another couple of hours would have made saying goodbye a little easier as well.

I really didn’t have any problems with the flow of this movie, or its execution, other than to say that I would have welcomed even more violence as our anti-hero was getting his last hoorah. Although I won’t spoil how it happens, I will admit that I do find the death of Wolverine to be a bit flat in a way. To be taken out the way he is after surviving blades, bullets and even nuclear bombs, is a little sad – yet fitting. It’s the one thing that hadn’t really been tried yet, honestly. And, in my opinion, it does beat the way he died in the comic strain from 2014. Being covered in molten adamantium was a terrible way to go.

After seeing the way the movie was brought about, and seeing the way it was done, it is no surprise whatsoever that it dominated the box office to become the #1 movie in the world. The biggest question I really find myself having to ask at this point is; where do we go from here? If you’re a comic fan, you know that these characters die almost as much as they breathe and they (almost) always come back. From the multiverse, to clones, to time travel, somebody somewhere finds a way to bring back our favorites. But will it happen with Wolverine? Jackman has already mentioned a couple of people he thinks could rock the claws in a successful way, including Tom Hardy and Shah Rukh Kahn. But how could it happen? Is some fluke going to bring him back from the dead as is, or is someone going to pull an alternate version out another universe (more importantly, can the Marvel Cinematic Universe handle that kind of mind-screw)? The latter could explain why he looks different, of course. I don’t know. All I know is that this piece of the puzzle fit incredibly well and definitely didn’t see us deal with chromed claws or a weird, mute Deadpool.

If I don’t stop myself here, I’ll talk about the movie for days – believe me. So what did you think of “Logan?” Are you a fan of the way Mangold wrapped up the solo story of the larger-than-life Wolverine? How about that amazing, heart-wrenching performance from Dafne Keen as Laura/X-23? Or the emotionally destroyed Xavier who barely registers as the man from previous films? Leave your comments below or send me a message let me know what you thought! And keep this review going for those who may be interested!